Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-245) and index

"Enka, a sentimental ballad genre, epitomizes for many the "nihonjin no kokoro" (heart/soul of Japanese). To older members of the Japanese public, who constitute enka's primary audience, this music - of parted lovers, long unseen rural hometowns, and self-sacrificing mothers - evokes a direct connection to the traditional roots of "Japaneseness." Overlooked in this emotional invocation of the past, however, are the powerful commercial forces that, since the 1970s, have shaped the consumption of enka and its version of national identity. Informed by theories of nostalgia, collective memory, cultural nationalism, and gender, this book draws on the author's extensive fieldwork in probing the practice of identity-making and the processes at work when Japan becomes "Japan.""--Jacket

Ch. 1. The Cultural Logic of Enka's Imaginary -- Collective Remembering, Collective Forgetting -- Localizing the National, Nationalizing the Local -- Patterning Forms Through Kata -- Ch. 2. Inventing Enka: Definitions, Genres, Pasts -- Defining "Enka" -- Meiji Era (1868-1912) -- Taisho Era (1912-1926) -- Showa Era (1926-1989) -- Heisei Era (1989-present) -- Ch. 3. Producing Enka: Lessons in Perseverance -- The Enka Industry: Metaphors for the Nation -- The Making of a Singer: Imaging the Imaginary -- The Making of a Hit Song -- Ch. 4. Enka on Stage: Patterning the Practices of Intimacy -- Live Performances: Creating a Display of Patterned Intimacy -- Mediated Performances: Broadcasting Intimacy -- Ch. 5. Cliches of Excess: Words, Music, Bodies, and Beyond -- Textual Kata: A Modern Musical Recasting of Waka -- Musical Kata: Aural Processes of the Past -- Bodily Kata: Gendered Display -- Beyond Kata: Cliche and Its Limits -- Ch. 6. Consuming Enka's Imaginary: Listening, Singing, Doing -- Enka's Appeal -- Koenkai and Fan Clubs -- Karaoke -- Ch. 7. Enka as Engendered Longing: Romance, Furusato, "Japan" -- Romancing the Nation -- Longing for Furusato -- "Japan" -- App. A. Major Record Companies That Produce and Market Enka -- App. B. Regular Mass Media Enka Programs in the Tokyo Area, 1992 -- App. C. Listing of Songs in the Corpus

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